Letting You Go
by Firestone Piper
Summary: Austin never got over his bout of stage fright. Instead, he decided to quit performing music and move on with his life. Heartbroken, Ally must find a way to get him back into music. But is it too late?
1. Music & Dilemmas

Ally Dawson was working a shift at Sonic Boom. It was busy today. Finally her break came and she walked upstairs to the practice room. She jumped when a certain Austin Moon barged in.

"Austin... what are you-"

"That's it Ally. I'm done. I quit singing and performing forever. I can't do it anymore," said Austin, and the sadness in his voice nearly killed Ally.

"Austin you can't give up! What about everything we've been through? I'm not letting you let something as silly as stage fright get in the way of your career."

"You're not listening to me are you? I give up! I don't care about my career anymore!" Austin shrugged. Ally felt a sudden rush of anger .

"You've changed. The Austin Monica Moon I know would never give up his amazing career over one bad review at one of his performances." Austin looked at her, hurt. "Well the Ally I-Don't -Know-Your-Middle-Name Dawson I knew would have supported me no matter what I decided." He was angry at Ally now. Couldn't she just accept that he didn't want to sing anymore? It wasn't that hard a concept.

"No Austin, I'm sorry if I'm not going to support you throwing your life away." said Ally, more hurt than mad now.

"It's not throwing my life away if continuing to sing would ruin my career anyway." protested Austin defiantly.

"Whatever. You're being selfish. What about Trish and Dez? This is the only job Trish has ever had and not gotton fired within 24 hours. And what about Dez? Do you honestly think anyone else is going to give him a job?" Ally was nearly shouting now. "Well you know what!? You're being selfish too! I would never force you to keep doing something you didn't like anymore!" Austin's voice was raised now too.

"If you honestly and truly hated something you wouldn't have stuck with it against the billion to one odds and worked at it and made it big." Ally said. She was feeling betrayed now, like the past few years had been a huge lie. What if Austin had actually never liked music, but he decided to stick with it to prove his dad wrong and to become famous. Ally tried to shake the thought out of her head. There was no way someone could be that committed to something they hated.

"Ally. I really am sorry but I just don't feel that spark anymore when I think about music and performing. I couldn't if I wanted to anyway. My stage fright is just getting worse." Austin's tone was apologetic now, which was almost worse. Ally, barely holding back tears, walked out of the practice room and down the stairs, where Trish and Dez were waiting.

"What's wrong Ally?" asked Dez, shocked to see the silent tears running down Ally's face.

"It's Austin... He-he's quitting music." Chocked out Ally, not trusting herself to speak more and not start all out sobbing.

"WHAT!?" exclaimed Trish and Dez in unison, not wanting to believe Ally but also knowing that Ally would never joke about something as serious as this. "Are you kidding? After all of the things we did to help his career and after all the fame he just decides to quit?"

"I know." said Ally, finally having calmed herself down .

"I'll go talk to him." said Dez determinedly, walking up the stairs.

"It's pointless. I've already tried." said Ally hollowly to Trish and she received a sad look in return.

"I know how hard this must be for you especially Ally. I know how much your and Austin's partnership meant to you. I'm so sorry." Said Trish, drawing Ally into a tight hug.

"Austin doesn't seem to care. He probably has a new girlfriend. We promised each other we'd look for other people." replied Ally, breaking the hug and crossing her arms over her chest.

"No way. Have you seen the way the guy looks at you ? He's still in love with you chica, wether you like it or not." Trish reasoned.

"I don't know. He doesn't seem to get why I'm so upset about him quitting music." "He's a guy, you can't expect him to be an expert on girls' feelings."

"Let's just hope that Dez can talk some sense into him ." Ally tried to change the subject. She was mostly over Austin. She was tired of waiting for him. How long was he planning to make her wait? The partnership being over spelled disaster for any hope of a relationship between them. Sure, they would still be friends, but they would probably start to grow apart and find other people.

"He will. Dez won't take no for an answer." said Trish , but she didn't seem too sure.

"I think we're about to find out." Ally nodded her head to the opening door of the practice room. Austin and Dez stepped out. Austin walked straight past Ally and out the door. He was mad at her, but why? She was just trying to help him and stop him from throwing his music career away. "He says he quits and that's final." Dez said , and then he walked out of Sonic Boom too.

"What I don't get it why Austin would quit at the top of his game." said Ally.

"I don't know either. It does kinda seem weird." admitted Trish, and then she walked out too, and started walking the same way Dez had. Ally, accepting defeat-at least for now- walked back up to the practice room.

She still had ten minutes left of her break. Looking around the practice room, she couldn't help but remember all of the memories with Austin she had here. Righting their first song together, him talking her out of her stage fright, the first time they had almost kissed, staying up all night writing a song for the Miami beach bash. How could she just discredit these memories like they were nothing, because if Austin quit music what aw the point of ever becoming his songwriter and causing herself all this heartbreak. Still thinking about this mess, she walked back down to start the second half of her shift. Then, it came to her. The perfect plan to get Austin back into music. She smiled to herself. There was no way that her plan would fail.


	2. Crushes & Old Friends

Ally had come up with a plan as soon as she saw the fliers her dad had laid behind the cash register for her to hang up. The fliers advertised a music festival in New York. There would be all types of music, and some of the more popular upcoming artists would be performing.

The festival would help Austin. it would re expose him to music and hopefully reignite that spark of inspiration that he was lacking. If Ally and Austin went to New York, Ally would have a good shot of getting him back into music. Ally knew Austin. He couldn't resist music forever, and she knew that. Deep down his love for it was still there. The only thing that wasn't clear was how long it was going to take Austin to realize that. How was she going to convince Austin to go? She was going to have to convince him to go with her on a trip to New York City and then spring the music festival on him "Oh by the way, there's this music thing in town .. Wanna go?"

The festival wasn't for a month, so Ally had some time to think about it. She just hoped that Austin wasn't too far gone by then. A lot could change between now and then.

She suspected that there was another reason that Austin had decided to quit that he wasn't telling her. Sure the bad review had hurt his pride and the stage fright was a bump in the road, but Austin wasn't a quitter. He was the one that pushed you to do your best and make sure that you did everything to your full capability, not someone who gave up and then acted like it was no big deal and moved on with life.

No body should have that attitude. Ally continued on like this, mulling about in her thoughts and helping costumers find what they needed. It carried on like this for a while before Ally heard a familiar voice calling her name. "Ally! Guess what?" it was Austin, and he sounded really excited to tell she whatever was on his mind. She could guess what he was going to tell her when she spotted Cassidy by his side.

This felt like a slap in the face. Austin had been all depressed and mopey an hour ago and now, just because Cassidy showed up, he was all puppy dog cheerful? Trish was wrong, but Ally was wrong too. Judging by what she saw here, Austin had never gotten over Cassidy completely. Ally tried to tell herself that she didn't care who Austin dated.

"Cassidy's back" said Ally, laughing a little.

"Yeah! Isn't it awesome? I was walking to my house and I ran into her!" Austin said excitedly.

"That's awesome! So you're done with your tour Cassidy?"

"Yeah. Now I get to hang out with blondie here." Cassidy smiled. Something flipped in Ally's stomach. Ally felt bad for feeling jealous. She had to let Austin go. It would be best for both of them.

"Sweet." Ally replied, returning Cassidy's smile. "Are you too a thing?" She added after hesitating a few seconds. It would be easier if they got this out of the way instead of Ally assuming that they had started dating. If she got conformation that they were dating it would be way easier to get over any remaining feelings for Austin. "Yeah." said Austin, sending Ally a quick apologetic glance and then looking down at the ground.

"Congrats!" Ally said sincerely. She was glad that Austin was happy. Austin smiled. He had been worried that Ally would be mad at him.

"Ally can I talk to you for a moment?" asked Cassidy innocently. Ally nodded and Austin got the hint and walked back out of the store.

"Ally, are you sure you're okay with this? I won't date him if it's going to make things awkward between you two." Cassidy said , and she sounded sincere. Ally felt conflicted. She really didn't want Cassidy and Austin to date for obvious reasons, but she wasn't going to stand in the way of him being happy with someone else either. "No that's fine . I'm over him ." Ally just hoped that her lie wasn't obvious.

"That fast hunh? I knew something was going to happen between you and blondie when we were all at that diner. That's why I didn't date him at first . That's also why I'm checking with you now . You guys have something special and it would be a shame to come in between it."

"I'm sure. We work best as friends and music partners, not as boyfriend and girlfriend." Ally felt like her words were betraying her. It might be awkward being stuck in limbo with Austin. She would get over him right? The way to get over her silly crush was to let Austin date other people, right ? She had to do this. There was no other option . "Cassidy. It's cool!" Cassidy gave a quick smile and then left the store too.

Even though she knew that she had done the right thing, Ally still felt a pain in her chest leaving Austin behind. At least things wouldn't be awkward any more when they were writing songs together. That's what truly mattered thought Ally. At least they would still be friends, and before you knew it she would forget Austin and move on to someone else.

Even though she tried to stop it , this thought filled her with sadness. A part of Ally still was in love with Austin, and she had to get over that . In the meantime she had to get Austin to the music festival. She needed a plan. If she told Cassidy right away, Austin wouldn't listen to her, he would know that it was Ally talking to him through Cassidy. He knew her too well. He might come along to support her though if Ally herself was performing . Ally snapped back in to focus just at Austin walked in, holding flowers.


End file.
